My wife and my friends play Dungeons and Dragons for around 6 months now, and since last week I decided to play too. I am dutch but emigrated to the US, and since I don't have a phone yet I can't ask my friends during most of the week for advise. They are gonna help me out but I want to do as much research as possible so we can resume our campaign quickly. We gather on Saturdays, so I'm left with plenty of days with research. I have around 6 years of WoW background, read parts of the core rules book, advanced player's guide and the secrets of the alchemist guide. I know how the game works but I do need advise on my Alchemist build, and more info about the class on how to use it's abilities.

I am jumping in the game as a lvl 5 elf Alchemist, and I want to go for the build that is displayed in the alchemist secrets guide known as "Carpet Bomber"

One thing I already trip over is the feats system, how does it work? Do I have them all, or do I need to choose? if yes, what are the rules on choosing a feat?

I know I can make 4x lvl1 elixirs a day + 2x lvl2 elixirs a day because I am lvl 5.
I can make elixirs based on the formulae list, but can I use all of the formulae list up to level 5 or are there some rules I don't know about yet?

Another thing is, how many bombs can I make per day? does it work the same like the elixirs?

Last but not least, as alchemist and my crafting skill I can make potions, which I need to be in a town in to create one. Is there a complete list of potions I can create for my level?

I hope you guys can help me out with these questions, and if you have tips or documentation for me I am glad to look into it.

1 Answer
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For feats, most characters get a feat at first level, and then another feat at every odd-numbered level. Humans get an additional feat at first level. So, your example 5th level Elf will have 3 feats available. If you have a WOW background, think of feats as talent points - they let you customise your character a little more every couple of levels. This is spelled out in the table on p30 of the Core rulebook.

The bottom of p27 of the Advanced Player's Guide (APG) outlines how many formulae are in your book by default - at first level, you get 2 1st level, plus an extra first level for each Int modifier. At each level after first, you get another 2 formulae of any level you create. So, by 5th level, you would have 10 plus Int modifier formulae, of which up to 4 could be 2nd level formulae.

You can also use bonus elixirs each day based on your Intelligence, so you'll likely get an extra one of each level, but check the bonus spells table in the Core rulebook to be sure (not sure what your Int is).

Elixirs are totally separate to bombs, even though the rulebook confuses things by mentioning them both in the 'Alchemy' rule. The Bomb rule on p28 of the APG, halfway through first paragraph, says you can use a number of bombs per day equal to class level + Intelligence modifier.

The Brew Potion feat allows you to create a potion version of any spell in your formuale book. Think of it as making a lasting version of an extract. This is described on p551 of the Core Rulebook. You can also make alchemical items (i.e. Alchemist's Fire, acid etc), and the rules for this are covered in the Skills chapter, p.91. The items you can actually make are in the equipment chapters of the various rulebooks.